Private Lives

If "Private Lives" was submitted for approval after the Production Code, it would violate it in about ten different ways. It's an astonishingly daring comedy, with a nasty edge. It features intense physical contact between a man and a woman who are married to other people, and by contact I mean both violent and erotic (and for those two, violence - physical and verbal - is a form of foreplay). Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery have an electric chemistry (no wonder they were paired so often on the screen). They play two very unlikable people: they treat their current spouses in a mean, inconsiderate, condescending way - and that's just on their first honeymoon night! But because they are Shearer and Montgomery, you do keep watching them. The first half of the film is little more than a filmed stage play, but the second half is a bit more cinematic. **1/2 out of 4.

I happen to adore this movie; it's my favorite classic comedy. Surely Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence did a better job than Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery, but Norma is my favorite actress, and Robert is my favorite of her many co-stars. The dialog is marvelous, and the plot is fun. I like the idea of the two exes who spend their honeymoons in adjacent suites. The fight between Norma and Robert could very well be one of the best ever filmed. This is such a fun movie, but is sadly a little forgotten. I hear that the MGM video release isn't being made anymore, so if you don't want to watch this gem on a grainy, used video, hurry to your local store and watch the clerk look at you funny when you sigh with relief over having gotten the last copy.

British wit Noel Coward (1899-1973) is best remembered for his wickedly funny comedies. Many, myself included, consider PRIVATE LIVES his single finest work. Opening in 1930 London co-starring Coward and the legendary Gertrude Lawrence, the play not only received tremendous critical acclaim, it also ran more than one hundred performances--something largely unheard of at the time. Moving quickly, MGM snapped up the film rights long before the original run ended and released a film version in 1931.

In the "Pre-Code" era censorship was not a significant issue, and the story follows the original stage play to the letter. After divorcing each other, Elyot and Amanda find themselves honeymooning with new spouses in adjoining hotel suites--and suddenly dessert their new spouses to resume their torrid love. Unfortunately, they both remain as eccentrically combative as ever, and it isn't long before the fur begins to fly.

The great failure of the film, however, is in the dialogue. As noted, censorship was not really an issue--but MGM advisers felt the script was too British for the American market and fiddled with the lines to make them "less English" in tone. But where a Noel Coward play is concerned, it isn't so much what you say as exactly how you say it, and in altering bits of wording the screenwriters significantly blunted the razor-like quality that made the original such a great success.

Even so, the 1931 film version of PRIVATE LIVES does a credible job of capturing the Noel Coward theatrical fire in a bottle, and the thing that makes the film work is Norma Shearer. One of the few silent stars to make a full transition to sound stardom, Shearer was among the most critically acclaimed and popular stars of her era. Although most widely acclaimed as a dramatic actress, modern viewers usually find her dramatic performances highly mannered--but what now seems mannered in drama works very, very well in comedy, and PRIVATE LIVES may be her single most accessible film for modern audiences. She is excellent throughout.

The remaining cast is a mixed bag. Robert Montgomery has the look but is essentially miscast as Elyot; still, he acquits himself well by avoiding the obvious missteps, and when he and Shearer click the whole thing goes off with a bang. Reginald Denny is quite expert as the stuffy Victor, and while Una Merkle seems as miscast as Robert Young she too renders a solid performance. Like most MGM films of the 1930s, the production values are top of the line from start to finish, slick, glossy, and attractive, and director Sidney Franklin (noted for his skill with actresses) keeps the film moving at a smart pace.

PRIVATE LIVES has had numerous revivals on stage with stars that range from Tallulah Bankhead to a memorable teaming of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and it remains a staple of world theatre; perhaps in the future there will be yet another film version that bests this one. But even so, this 1931 film will more than do until that wished-for-one comes along. Presently available to the home market via VHS only. Recommended.

Gary F. Taylor, GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I just saw this movie this morning on TCM. I absolutely loved it! So funny! Norma was great and so was Robert Montgomery. I enjoyed their bickering, and after a bit, could TELL when it was coming just by a remark made. It was actually very modern in it's depiction of a marriage, as that really doesn't change. I found this movie to be very delightful, and full of wit. Their fight scene is the best! When Amanda shrieks and screams and cries, it is priceless! I recommend it highly. I have recently discovered Norma Shearers' movies, and she is so good it is a joy to watch her. I saw "The Women" and "Marie Antionette" as a child, but it is wonderful to be able to watch movies like "Private Lives" now. It is hard to believe it was made in '31, it is not dated at all.

In MGM's rendering or Noel Coward's classic "comedy of bad manners," PRIVATE LIVES, about a couple who can't live without each other but can't live WITH each other either, the best of Coward's famous lines are preserved by a generally superior cast and the film is close to brilliant for it.

It's our loss however, that Noel Coward didn't have the clout or the concern that Bernard Shaw had in the 30's to demand that he himself provide his own screenplays when his stage plays were translated to the screen. When Hans Kraly, Richard Shayer and (the uncredited) Claudine West insist on earning their "scenario by" credit, the leaden insertions stick out like proverbial sore thumbs.

Only the charming, brief coda on a train added to the film after the play script ends is a satisfying addition, but it is a nice way to finish a delightful 84 minutes.

SOME of the ham handed alterations are not the fault of the Screenwriter's Guild contract or the Studio's concern that the film "not be TOO British." The time wasting substitution of a hiker's hostel (and, later, a private chalet) in the alps and a German speaking guide (played with a twinkle but no actual laughs by Jean Hersholt) for Coward's borrowed Paris flat and hilarious French speaking maid was clearly a bid for the then thriving pre-war German film market. It doesn't seriously hurt the film, but it doesn't help it an iota either.

Top billed Norma Shearer is quite fine as Amanda (Chase) Prynne who runs away from her honeymoon with Victor with her first husband, Elyot. She even sounds remarkably like the original stage Gertrude Lawrence, when she sings. Reginald Denny is everything one could wish in the role of the dimly proper Victor Prynne that gave Laurence Olivier his start on the stage, and Una Merkel is equally fine as the air headed Sybil Chase (famously asked not to "quibble"), the new wife abandoned by Robert Montgomery's Elyot Chase.

If there is a weakness in the film's acting, it is in the merely solid performance from Robert Montgomery - playing totally American and closer to Robert Young than Noel Coward (who wrote the part for himself and originated it in the London and Broadway stages). Nevertheless, to date, PRIVATE LIVES has been on Broadway at least seven times, and with the exception of Coward's original and Brian Bedford's dazzling work opposite the Tony winning Tammy Grimes in David Merrick's 1969-70 production, Montgomery may be the best of the major Elyots. The role's insecure flippancy makes it a close to impossible one to pull off as well as it is written, and Montgomery comes very close indeed.

Coward's other immortal comedy, BLITHE SPIRIT, which kept audiences on both sides of the Atlantic laughing through most of World War II, was filmed in England (and in color) just after the war, with a cast and script even closer to the spirit of the original, but the cinematic style has not aged nearly as well as this generally excellent PRIVATE LIVES. Still, BOTH of them should be near the top of the "must see" list for any lover of classic literate comedy.